Sleeping Beauty, produced by Jetlag Productions in 1996 and recently released on DVD format by GoodTimes Entertainment, is a newer version of the classic tale and mind you, it is not to be confused with Walt Disney's 1959 animated masterpiece; the films, other than telling the same story, have very little in common. I for one did not buy this film "by mistake" or anything of the sort, since I pay close attention to what I buy and I bought this because I wanted to. This version is mainly and only directed towards younger audiences, for this it offers lively songs, colorful characters and fun-filled scenes without spending too much time on elaborate animation or anything of the sort. When it comes to character design, however, this is definitely one of Jetlag's finest hours, since the characters are well designed and an improvement over those in Jetlag Productions'
Jungle Book (1996), where the main character was painful to look at.
Sleeping Beauty was inspired by Charles Perrault's version of the classic fairy tale by the same name. It tells the story of a king and a queen living in a faraway kingdom who had longed for a child of their own. One day, their wish came true and they announced a great celebration to take place at the palace in honor of their newborn baby. All of the fairies in the land where invited to the festivities and each of them was named a godmother to the new princess, whom they named Princess Felicity. Each of the fairies blessed the baby with a special gift that gold could not buy: beauty, grace, a beautiful voice, happiness, intelligence... Just as the last of the fairies, Primrose, was about to gift Felicity her gift, the old sorceress Odelia makes an appearance. Odelia, feared by the king and queen, was thought dead by everyone in the kingdom and was very angry that the king and queen had neglected to invite her to the celebration. For this, Odelia offered to give Princess Felicity one more gift, the gift of death. She explained that a week after Felicity turned sixteen, she would prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. The king and queen were anxious for their daughter's life and asked Primrose whether she could undo Odelia's terrible curse with the last of the gifts. Primrose doubted herself, but she declared that if she could not undo the curse, she would be able to change it. Primrose announced that Felicity would indeed prick her finder on a spindle, but instead of dying, she would fall into a deep asleep that would last one hundred years and a day, and she would then be awakened by the kiss of a noble prince.
This was a pretty cute outcome from Jetlag Productions, perhaps not as sweet as
Heidi (1996), and definitely not as cute as Diane Eskenazi's 1992 line of Golden Films productions, but still good. There were some minor disappointments, but nothing that ruined the appeal of the film for me. For one, though the characters are well designed, especially the witch Odelia, some of the characters were ruined by poor voice choices. The actress playing Odelia's voice did not fit the character one bit, she had also played Grandmama in Heidi, but this time the voice did not work at all. Some of the fairies had very annoying voices, Primrose's was excused because her character somewhat called for a high-pitched voice, but Melody, the fairy with the "most beautiful voice" had a very annoying high-pitched voice, in my opinion. Other characters had good voices which had got old from being used and reused in numerous Jetlag Productions films. Shame, because the voices behind some smaller characters, such as the fairies Aura and Amoratta are not only pleasant and beautiful, but also fresh and new. The songs were really nice, the first time I listened to them I was unimpressed, but now I like them. The problem is with the third song, "Just Keep On Going", though not at all one of the best songs from Jetlag, was a catchy tune, but who's dumb idea was it to add narration over it? The last part of the song cannot be heard because it is muted almost entirely by the narrator. The other two songs, "Follow Your Heart" and "Princess, Did You Know?" were really sweet and I loved them. As a last flaw, the character of Prince Richard was by far one of the dumbest characters yet, not as silly and empty as the prince in
Snow White (1996) perhaps, but still rather corny, I had to laugh when Primrose called him "silly boy". I won't consider the weaker animation techniques a real flaw, since I've come to expect that from Jetlag Productions, but I don't mind one bit since the stories told here are always good. Highly recommended 48-minute film for children, very enjoyable and well done!
